1. C h a p t e r s 3 & 6 PA RT I I I
Globalizing the Body Politics
&
Jamming Media and Popular Culture

2. WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF
POPULAR CULTURE?
Does Everyone “Read”
Pop Culture The Same?

3. Consuming Popular Culture
Meaning is never FIXED, but is always being CONSTRUCTED
within various contexts through encoding and decoding.
Stuart Hall Decoded
Encoded Message
(1980) Message
 Encoding
Sender Receiver
 Decoding
Encoding cultural texts
ENCODING: the process of creating a message.
DECODING: the process of interpreting a message.
Various industries prepare reader profiles, portrayals of readership demographics, and
respond to the cultural and political needs of cultural identities in a variety of ways.

4. Consuming Popular Culture
DOMINANT NEGOTIATED OPPOSITIONAL
READING READING
OR HEGEMONIC
READING
 The viewer/reader
generally shares the  The reader brings an
 Preferred reading preferred meaning of alternative
the texts interpretation of the
 Reader/viewer
decodes the  They also resist and text
message in the way modify the encoded  Resist the dominant
intended by the meaning
reading of the text
encoder  They negotiate the
meaning based on their  Shaped by the social
 Consistent with the positionality, interests, position of the reader
dominant beliefs, and experiences
norms, and
ideologies

5. Pop Culture & Representation
RACE, GENDER, CLASS INTERSECTIONAL ANALYSIS
The Hunger Games
PAY ATTENTION TO:
• Stereotypical, Misrepresentation & Under Representation of Non-
Dominant Groups
• Gender & Sexuality

6. THE I HAVE READ THESE
BOOKS OR
WATCHED THIS
HUNGER FILM
A. Yes
GAMES B. No

7. FACTS ON THE POPULARITY OF
THE HUNGER GAMES
• 2006: Collins signed a six- • The first book originally had a
figure deal for three books 50,000 first printing.
with Scholastic.
• It was bumped up twice to
• September 14, 2008: The 200,000 copies.
Hunger Games was first
published as a hardcover in • February 11, 2010: The
the U.S. Hunger Games had sold
• November 2008: The Hunger 800,000 copies
Games became a New York
Times Best Seller. • The rights to the novel had
been sold in 38 countries.
• December 2008: An
audiobook version was
released.

8. MORE FACTS ON THE POPULARITY OF
THE HUNGER GAMES
PRINT E-BOOK
• September 2010: The Hunger • Suzanne Collins is the First
Games was on The New York young adult author to sell over
Times list for over 1 million Kindle ebooks.
100 consecutive weeks. • She is the 6th author to join
• When The Hunger Games film the "Kindle Million Club.”
was released, the book had
been on USA Today’s best- • March 2012, announced that
selling books list for 135 Collins had become the best-
consecutive weeks. selling Kindle author of all
• The publisher reported 26 time.
million Hunger Games trilogy • Collins had written 29 of the
books in print, including movie 100 most-highlighted passages
tie-in books. in Kindle ebooks.

9. THE ECONOMIC FACTOR
 The Hunger Games posted a record
breaking opening weekend, netting
an estimated $155 million (Rolling
Stone March 26, 2012)
 The Hunger Games has earned $337.1
million after 24 days and seems
headed for a final domestic total of
about $375 million. (CNN April 16,
2012)
 The film is nearing the $200 million
mark overseas, and its worldwide
total stands at $531 million. (CNN
April 16, 2012)

10. ADDITIONAL ECONOMIC PROFITEERS
ACCORDING TO SEEKING ALPHA ON
MARCH 22, 2012:
8 additional companies stand to
profit from
The Hunger Games:
1. Amazon
2. Barnes & Noble
3. Cinemark
4. Hot Topic
5. IMAX Corporation
6. Netflix
7. Regal Entertainment
8. Scholastic

11. TODAY’S THEMES
POWER Pop culture represents
SELF stereotypes that are connected to
OTHERS social judgments of others.

12. HUNGER GAMES & CASTING
According to Jezebel March 26 2012, the book What Race or Ethnicity
describes Katniss with the following do you imagine Katniss
characteristics. to be?
A. White or
Katniss Everdeen European
 Lives in District 12 Descent
 Coal-mining country; Appalachians. B. African or Black
 Olive skin, Descent
 “Straight, black hair,” C. Asian or Pacific
Islander Descent
 Grey eyes
D. Latina or Persian
 "small in stature" and Descent
 light (in weight) for her age (16) E. Any of the
 One of the smallest tributes in her games. above.

13. IS THIS WHO YOU IMAGINED?
A.Yes
B.No

14. ACCORDING TO RACEBENDING.COM
Debra Zane Casting distributed a casting call that read:
“…actresses submitting for the role “should be
Caucasian, between ages 15 and 20, who could
portray someone ‘underfed but strong,’ and ‘naturally
pretty underneath her tomboyishness.”

15. Jennifer Lawrence May Be Up For Hunger
Games Lead, But There’s Controversy Too
“First of all: Caucasian? Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins is
careful to write Katniss as being of ambiguous ethnicity, with
straight dark hair, olive skin and gray eyes– basically, she could be
from any race. It’s not really a surprise that they’d want to cast a
white girl in the role, given the myopic way Hollywood views race
and who sells tickets, but kind of shocking that they’d
completely exclude auditioners of other races.”
-CinemaBlend

16. Oh No They Didn’t: The Hunger Games Casting for
‘Underfed’ White Teenage Girls
“The question isn’t, ‘Is Katniss white?’ but ‘Could Katniss possibly be anything
other than white?’
In casting only for Caucasian performers, the filmmakers seem to close the door
on that possibility.
“…is that move warranted by the material or simply another case of Hollywood
whitewashing? There aren’t many good reasons for excluding non-white
performers from consideration based on Collins’ books and characters, aside
from the desire to appeal to the dominant paradigm in the film’s marketing
materials. If Collins is on board with this and has any argument in favor of the
casting move, she should start explaining.”
-Movieline

17. April of 2011, Suzanne Collins told Entertainment Weekly
that her characters…
…Were not particularly intended to be biracial. It is a time
period where hundreds of years have passed from now.
There's been a lot of ethnic mixing. But I think I describe
them as having dark hair, grey eyes, and sort of olive skin
.…But then there are some characters in the book who
are more specifically described.

18. IDENTITY & REPRESENATION IN
THE HUNGER GAMES
On page 45 of The Hunger Games, Collins describes the
character Rue as:
…a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark
brown skin and eyes…
What Race or Ethnicity do you imagine this character to be?
A. White or European Descent
B. African or Black Descent
C. Asian or Pacific Islander Descent
D. Middle Eastern or Persian Descent
E. Unsure

19. IS THIS WHO YOU IMAGINED?
A.Yes
B.No

20. TWITTER RESPONSES TO
RUE’S CASTING

22. COLLINS & ROSS ON CASTING
In regards to Thresh and Rue as characters, Collins said,
"They're African-American.”
Director Gary Ross added:
Thresh and Rue will be [played by actors who are] African-
American. It's a multi-racial culture and the film will reflect that.
But I think Suzanne didn't see a particular ethnicity to Gale and
Katniss when she wrote it, and that's something we've talked
about a lot.

23. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
People use popular culture to
reaffirm their own cultural
identities.
• Sometimes due to a conflict in culture values and cultural
identities, people actively resist certain popular culture texts.
• Much of the resistance stems from concerns about the
representation of various social groups.